TL: Hua
As it was a matter of life and death, Pei Jintang was unwilling to let it go easily, and he said coldly, “When our Pei family can’t afford to buy rice anymore, we’re going to steal your mouthful of rice!”
Pei Xiting looked at the man and said indifferently, “Your arrow is quite powerful, which doesn’t make sense for you to say that you’re not good at riding and shooting. Are you being modest?”
“I have practiced sparring for a few years, and my hands are strong enough.” The man shrugged, very helpless. “But I really don’t have the accuracy; otherwise, I wouldn’t have almost shot you.”
If he was shooting at prey, not only is it inaccurate, it is simply blind, but if the prey is “Pei Xiting”, it would be too accurate.
Pei Xiting has been painting since he was a child and is used to being observant. When this man came out, he did not panic at all, and his apology was not sincere. It was obviously intentional. But from the memory of “Pei Xiting”, he had no grudge against this man.
Pei Xiting stroked the horse whip, and the forest suddenly became quiet. Pei Jintang looked askance at Pei Xiting’s face, which was neither happy nor angry.
The accompanying guard coincidentally stared at Pei Xiting’s movements of rubbing his whip, which were more like reminders than warnings. Fortunately, Pei Xiting’s fingertips relaxed slightly, and in the end, he just smiled emotionlessly and said, “Then you need to be careful next time.”
“Third Young Master Pei is generous, thank you.” The man smiled, turned his horse’s head, and rode away.
Pei Jintang said unhappily: “Even if it’s not intentional, that nonchalant expression was still very annoying!”
“Who is he?” Pei Xiting asked.
“The son of a judge in the Ministry of Justice, his name is Wang Yehu… No, Wang Yelai. He is not a person with good moral character, so some people privately call him Yehu (Night pot[mfn]The night pot is a device used by men to urinate at night in winter. A metaphor for someone who’s cheap, dirty or useless.[/mfn]), very foul.” Pei Jintang clenched his fist, “I really want to beat him up!”
“Without evidence, it’s our fault for starting a fight. Even if Prince Ning doesn’t blame us, we will be punished to kneel in the ancestral hall when we return to Pei Mansion,” Pei Xiting said.
Pei Jintang knew the seriousness of the matter and frowned irritably, “It’s really inconvenient to be followed!”
The guards looked at each other and pretended not to hear.
Pei Jintang said, “Although it’s not too late for a gentleman to take revenge after ten years, this is too frustrating!”
“A gentleman takes revenge from morning to night.” As long as the person is not dead, there are many opportunities for revenge. Pei Xiting turned the whip and looked calmly in the direction where Wang Yelai left.
Pei Jintang’s eyes lit up. “Do you have an idea?”
Pei Xiting drew a circle on the ground with the bow in his hand, and said to the confused Pei Jintang: “This move is called ‘draw a circle to curse you’.”
Unheard of, Pei Jintang asked, “What is its power?”
“The surname Wang will soon fall to death while walking.”
“…” Pei Jintang smiled slightly.
Four guards: “…”
Pei Xiting yawned, turned around and rode away.
Pei Jintang could only sigh and followed him into the woods, obviously not in a good mood. However, after running for a while, he saw that Pei Xiting was serious about hunting and was not affected at all by the small episode, so he temporarily put the matter behind and focused on hunting.
“Can you hunt a rabbit to take back and roast?” As the day deepened and his stamina declined, Pei Jintang was hungry.
“Why don’t we eat something bigger?” Pei Xiting pointed to the ground under Pei Jintang’s puzzled gaze, “Slight vibration, something is running towards us.”
Pei Jintang clenched his saber. “Didn’t they say there are no beasts in this forest?”
“It doesn’t seem to be a large beast.” Pei Xiting said.
“Two, one in front and one behind, chasing very closely.” A guard jumped off his horse and listened to the ground. “A horse and a beast, the sound of the horse’s hooves doesn’t sound right—here it comes!”
As he spoke, a black horse suddenly rushed out of the forest ahead. The person on the horse’s back swayed back and forth, scared speechless without even uttering a scream. What rushed out from behind the horse was a rough-haired wild boar. Several people present scattered like birds. The guard shot an arrow, which brushed the wild boar’s back, and another arrow shot from the opposite side, hitting the wild boar’s chest and abdomen.
Then, a net flew from the right, opened in the air, and covered the wild boar that was struggling in pain. A guard on the left rushed out and grabbed the corner of the net. The two worked together to subdue the screaming wild boar.
At the same time, four horse hooves rushed out in the opposite direction, chasing the black horse.
“This horse of his runs much faster than us!” Pei Jintang was puzzled and asked again, “Shooting a horse?” “Should we shoot the horse?”
“The man on the horse can’t hold on anymore. If the horse falls, the man will be thrown off the horse’s back, dead or disabled!” said one of the guards.
Pei Xiting asked, “Is there a shortcut road? Go around and block his path.”
“There is! It’s going to take a bit of running.”
“It’s fine.” Pei Xiting said, “Two brothers, please take the shortcut and catch the person when the time comes.”
The two guards behind signaled each other with their gaze, randomly left the team, and rushed into the forest on the left side.
The remaining two continued to chase. Pei Jintang shouted, “Hey! The person on the horse! Are you still alive!”
“…Yes!”
“You can’t keep lying on the horseback. When I call out to you later, just let go and protect your head. Someone is preparing the net to catch you!” Pei Jintang’s throat almost split, “Did you hear that!”
The man’s voice was hoarse and cracked, “Thank you…thank you very much!”
“You’re welcome!” Pei Jintang roared.
The man stumbled to loosen the reins wrapped around his wrist and changed to gripping them tightly. At this moment, a sound of hooves could be heard from the front, and someone behind shouted, : “Jump for me–”
The man felt the horse beneath him neighing in pain and lurched forward suddenly. Instinctively, he closed his eyes and released the reins. In an instant, he was airborne, flung forward, crashing into a net, falling heavily, bouncing up abruptly, and finally hanging in the air.
“…” The man opened his eyes tremblingly, looked around, and found that he was being held up by two guards with a net at an arm’s length from the ground. He was saved.
The man’s tense body suddenly relaxed, and after exhaling a breath of foul air, he grabbed the net and said, “Please put me down, both of you.”
The two guards put the man down, quickly untied the net, and helped him up. The man hurriedly peeled off the messy hair stuck on his face, revealing a pair of bright eyes and sparse eyebrows.
“It turned out to be the fourth young master of Duke Wen’s mansion. I’m sorry. You must have been frightened.” The two guards saluted.
“Thank you for saving me. Otherwise, I would have suffered today.” Zhao Yi bowed to the two guards, who hurriedly returned the courtesy. He took another step forward and bowed towards the two on horseback, “Many thanks to the two gentlemen.”
Pei Jintang dismounted and returned the greeting, saying, “Drawing your sword to help is a virtue of our generation, so you don’t have to be polite.”
Zhao Yi praised, “Second Young Master Pei is very generous.”
At this time, someone exclaimed. A guard was leaning over to check the horse’s front hoof, saying, “Why is there no blood mark? Didn’t the arrow just now hit it?”
“It hit, but it didn’t penetrate.” Pei Jintang walked over, squat on the ground, found a stone, and showed it to everyone, “It was me who threw the stone first, and then Xiting shot an arrow, borrowing the force from the arrow to lend strength to the stone, hitting the horse’s hooves and causing the horse to stagger, or else it would have been difficult to save this leg.”
Zhao Yi exclaimed, “The two gentlemen are really thoughtful.”
“It was all Xiting’s idea.” Pei Jintang glanced at Pei Xiting, who had been silent and acted like a bystander. He thought to himself: This kid, he’s cold on the outside but is actually warm inside.
Pei Xiting rejected Pei Jintang’s wink and said nothing.
“The surface of this stone is smooth. Second Young Master Pei threw it so accurately while galloping, and the archery skill of Third Young Master Pei is also at a master level.” A guard praised, “I never thought that the two young masters of Pei-shaoqing’s family were so powerful.”
Pei Jintang was not modest and said openly, “Praise us as much as you want; I love to hear it.”
While everyone was talking, Pei Xiting dismounted the horse, looked around along the horse, and then leaned down, carefully touched along the chest and abdomen, and suddenly touched something. “Wait.”
Everyone stopped. Pei Jintang asked, “What’s wrong?”
Pei Xiting took out a half-finger-long needle from the horse’s neck, stood up, and looked at Zhao Yi. “Your horse has been tampered with; call the police… the authority.”
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